Dimensions: support: 772 x 775 mm frame: 953 x 960 x 91 mm
Copyright: © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2014 | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: So, this is "The Poet Reclining" by Marc Chagall. It's got this dreamlike, pastoral quality. Almost feels like stepping into a memory. What strikes you most about it? Curator: It's that feeling, isn’t it? Chagall invites us into his reverie. I get a sense of timelessness. The poet resting... Are they escaping into nature, or is nature embracing them? It’s almost biblical in its peace. Editor: Biblical, that's interesting. I was thinking it's a bit melancholic, but that serenity, that checks out. Curator: Melancholy isn’t far off! It’s a poignant sweetness, wouldn’t you say? Almost longing for something just out of reach. Editor: It's definitely stuck with me. I'll be pondering that dreamy peace for a while.
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tate about 2 months ago
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/chagall-the-poet-reclining-n05390
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tate about 2 months ago
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Chagall had just married his first wife Bella when he began this painting. It is a reverie in which he imagines himself outstretched in the Russian countryside where they spent their honeymoon. He remembered it as a place of 'wood, fir-trees, solitude. The moon behind the forest. The pig in the sty, the horse behind the window, in the fields. The sky lilac.' Though an idyllic scene, the figure seems oddly isolated. This may relate to the fact that Chagall painted it during the First World War, a conflict then being fought on Russian soil. Gallery label, August 2004
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